Acquisition And Placement Of Public Art In Helsinki Elementary Schools

Abstract

The study endeavors to clarify the city of Helsinki's selecting of public art and placing of it in municipal elementary schools. The significance of the art-pedagogical aspects in the public art acquisition and decision-making was measured by clarifying the participation of schools and their users in the processes of art acquisition. The research question is as follows: are art-pedagogical perspectives present in the city's art acquisition process? In the study several employees of the Helsinki City Art Museum were interviewed and the Collection Policy Program of the Helsinki Art Museum 2012 (2013) was used as text material. The meaning structures of the theme interviews were analyzed and content analysis connected with institutional art theory was used, when analyzing the related text material. The study showed that public art is acquired for the Helsinki area elementary schools through percentage financing principle and as Helsinki Art Museum's own acquisitions for the Accessioned collection. In either acquisition models the students were commonly not heard in the decision-making process. Instead teachers were listened to during the art acquisition process. Sometimes the curriculum of a school was reflected in the process. However, when the art acquisition solely by the Art Museum was in question the art-pedagogical activities took place more than in the case of percentage art acquisitions. The study suggests that students' possible learning from and about visual public art and esthetics in the school setting is enhanced when they themselves are involved in the process of public art acquisition, including the artpedagogical activities.